Mar. 13, 2014

Written by

Metro Nashville Public Schools are moving forward on planning for a future prekindergarten center inside a community center that serves the city’s booming immigrant community in South Nashville.

The Metro school board unanimously voted this week to start preliminary work involved in building out 4,800 square feet of vacant space inside Casa Azafrán on Nolensville Pike that will serve as the center’s home.

The facility is now on track to become Metro’s third pre-K hub to anchor Director of Schools Jesse Register’s plan to expand early childhood education in Davidson County, though it still needs board approval for $1.9 million to cover operating and construction costs.

On top of those expenses, MNPS officials are still finalizing lease details with Conexión Americas, a nonprofit that owns the year-old building and would be partnering with the district on the project.

Register has said locating the district’s third pre-K center in Casa Azafrán would not only ease long waiting lists for pre-K, but also strengthen services for students from non-English-speaking backgrounds, who make up a quarter of all Metro students.

“These will be truly model schools,” Register said. “I’m as excited about this as anything we’ve done in a long time.”

The Casa Azafrán pre-K center would serve 80 students across four classrooms. Combined with future pre-K hubs in East and North Nashville, the district will have increased its number of seats by 340. Register acknowledged that there’s still a long way to go to ease waiting lists that exceed 1,000 annually. Metro currently serves 2,516 pre-K students.

“What excites us about having a pre-K classroom and model program at Casa Azafrán is for those teachers to get those kids earlier in their life, but we’re as excited about getting their parents also early,” said Renata Soto, executive director of Conexión Americas.

Board members, who have supported Register lockstep as he pursues pre-K expansion over the next three years, had glowing things to say about the latest development.

“We’re all thrilled that we are embarking on this adventure,” board member Jill Speering said.